I feel like Hoover was, at least from this book review, a quintessential geek type: a great lover of systems, math, and detail, but people found him cold and aloof. (During the relief of Belgium, people accused him of thinking of the starving Belgians as just numbers on a sheet.)

And Hoover lived the geek fantasy, right? "You're so smart, we're going to put you in charge of everything!" And then it ACTUALLY WORKED.